The following images were taken with the Pentax Optio Z10. The
Z10 was set to 8M *** mode with Auto White Balance, Multi-Segment metering and the default settings for Sharpness, Saturation and Contrast.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in
Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while
the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High
quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and
far right portions of each image.

Our final 100 ISO sample here was again taken with the camera zoomed-out, but under very dim conditions.

Once again the crops are fairly detailed and there's little concern over noise or processing. More obvious here is the purple fringing in high contrast areas, like the waterfall, although this is barely visible on most prints.

On the downside, the lack of optical or sensor shift stabilisation prevented us from hand-holding a slower exposure to blur the water.

The key selling point of the Pentax Z10 is its longer than average optical zoom range: 7x with an equivalent of 38-266mm. Here it's zoomed all the way in, allowing us to capture town details from a high location.

Impressively there's only the slightest evidence of coloured fringing, but sadly the crops reveal noticeable noise and processing artefacts when viewed at 100% - and this is at the lowest 64 ISO sensitivity.

It's also worth mentioning the lack of optical or sensor stabilisation makes the 7x zoom less useful than it could be.

Our 800 ISO sample here reveals a significant increase in artefacts from noise and noise reduction when viewed at 100%.

The crops show noticeable speckling, making 800 ISO only acceptable to those who make smaller prints or don't examine their images too closely.

To be fair, this is par for the course on a compact these days, but working against the Z10 is its lack of optical or sensor shift stabilisation, forcing you into higher sensitivities to avoid camera-shake.

Our final high sensitivity indoor shot was taken with the Z10 set to 1600 ISO, and as you'd expect there's a significant increase in noise and loss of detail.

Like most compacts, 1600 ISO on the Z10 is really only for emergency use, although as mentioned above, you may find it a necessary evil in dark conditions given the unforgivable lack of optical or sensor-shift stabilisation.

The Z10 also has a 3200 ISO mode if you're feeling really ambitious - see our Z10 Outdoor noise results.

If you found this review useful, please support us by shopping below!

All words, images, videos and layout, copyright 2005-2015 Gordon Laing. May not be used without permission.